My Sins
by silkendreammaid
Summary: Visions of Sins. Pride. Pride was an actor.
1. Envy

**My Sins**

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor ever will, Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters within.

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**Envy: Stalker**

Envy was a stalker. Once he found something he wanted, he would stalk it. He would follow it, he would keep it under surveillance for as long as it took. If he wanted it, then he had to have it. To get it, he would do whatever he had to.

Envy had found his next prey. He had seen him last week and he had known in a blink. He wanted him. He had to have him. So he began to stalk him.

It was surprisingly easy. His target did not move around too much. He had a basic routine and it took Envy two days to figure it out. He found ways to make sure his intended stayed within the confines of his routine. Disguise and guile were his tools. And patience. Envy could be surprisingly patient when he was stalking.

Envy sat at a desk in a uniform and someone else's face and watched. After nearly a week, Envy was more in danger from boredom than he was from discovery. He drew on the corner of the paperwork he was supposed to be doing something with. He hadn't actually worked out the purpose of these printed sheets, but as long as he put a pen mark somewhere on it, it made the person who collected them happy.

He leant back in his chair and yawned. He wondered if all this was really worth it and he looked over at his target and smirked. Oh yes, this was worth it.

* * *

Gifts began to appear. Small things, trivial, pointless. A pen, a crystalline stone, a china dog. Envy watched as the first offerings were frowned at and discarded. He grinned as the frown became deeper and the eyes became confused as the gifts kept coming. Flowers, chocolate, gloves. Questions were asked and no-one knew. Heads shook and people looked but there was nothing to find. Envy smirked.

Three weeks and the gifts stopped and the frown faded.

Little things began to go missing. A pen, a file, a book. The frown came back accompanied by a worried expression. Eyes began to look everywhere, flickering from one side to the other. A nervous tic developed after the third day. Fingers would rub together unconsciously. Envy watched carefully.

Envy did not go to the office for two days. He found a vantage point and watched. His non-appearance seemed to heighten the tension in his prey and he grinned. It was time to expand, he thought.

His target now found things in his home moved or missing. Paranoia became evident in the eyes and the walk. Tense and alert, it made following him more enjoyable Envy thought. He drifted behind him in different faces and shapes, sometimes following all the way, sometimes turning off earlier. He followed him in the morning and he followed him home every evening.

Envy knew everything about his prey now. From what was in his wardrobe to what he ate every day. He knew how he smelt, looked and sounded. He knew what would trigger a smile or anger. He knew everything except how his target would react when he came to claim him. And that, to Envy was the most beautiful thing of it all. Unpredictability, doubt, a frisson of nerves.

Soulless as he was, this was the closest he could come to feeling human. He savoured it, he augmented it with every nervous twitch and eye flicker from his prey. It was the only emotion he could _feel_ inside him. He had convinced himself of that.

* * *

And now he waited. No following this evening. He waited inside his target's home. Seated in a chair, facing the door and waiting. Waiting for that singular moment of awareness that would widen eyes and make breathing difficult. Where the face would pale and the hands would shake. And then the further realisation of knowing it was him from the very beginning.

Envy shivered. These last moments before that door opened were what he lived for. He smiled almost sensually as he arched his back and settled deeper into the chair. Soon, so very soon. His violet eyes gleamed and his head tilted.

Footsteps outside. Envy closed his eyes briefly and drew in an unnecessary breath. Keys clinked and his breath went out. The door lock rattled slightly as the key was jiggled to make the tumblers turn.

Envy opened his eyes as the door opened. He smiled.

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Miscellany: "Envy, like fire, soars upward." Author: Titus Livy. _Annales (VIII, 31)_

Author's Note: How this develops, is unknown to me yet. Whether it becomes a set of one shots of all the Sins or follows Envy, I don't know. The bunny that delivered this gave me no further instructions.

silken :)


	2. Greed

**My Sins**

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor ever will, Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters within.

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**Greed: Thief**

Greed rummaged through the pockets of the dead man and sighed as he found nothing. What a waste. The way the man had run had convinced him that he had something worthwhile to protect. Something valuable, but all he had had was a picture and an empty wallet. Greed stood up. It hadn't been anything to die for he thought as he let the picture drop from his fingers and turned away. Towards the lighted areas, towards the temptations he still craved.

He had become restless again. The need he was named for had been pushing him along again. It had risen within him to become an almost palpable itch. He knew these feelings. They were the only ones he had. The overwhelming need to have everything. He hadn't had an itch like this for a very long time and he had welcomed it. His smile had grown feral and the normal restraints on his control had slipped.

He had left his nest and begun.

Like a shadow he had walked through the evening, stealing and taking as he went. Things slipped through his fingers and into his pockets or through them to the ground. He left a trail of discards behind him as he ruthlessly judged everything he touched. Monetary value, materialistic worth was his scale and sentiment had no place in his judgements.

He was smooth, barely noticed and sleek as he walked past and through so many lives. Items, people, he touched them all and he cared little for them. This need to take was a driving necessity. His usual enjoyment had been supplanted by hunger. A deep-seated hunger that kept him moving.

"My, my, aren't you the pretty one," he murmured as he paced beside the little blonde that had caught his eye. His arm draped over her shoulders and he steered her away from the light and into the shadows with the ease of long practise. Any sound she might have made disappeared beneath his hand and then his mouth.

He watched her eyes widen and the terror wash through her as he let his hand drift over her body. He grinned, a cynical twist across his face as she pushed away from his touch. It was always better when they fought against him. That's when the hunger and need surged hardest within him. That was the moment he knew he was taking something precious, something valuable.

Her flesh was warm and unwilling and he let himself linger, to savour everything he took from her. The taste of her, the smell and feel of her, all settled into his skin. He knelt beside her and poked at her unresisting body. He sighed. It always ended the same way though. By the time he had taken everything, they had long given up.

What was valuable to them, meant nothing to him. It was the taking, not the keeping that mattered.

He stood up and straightened his clothes. Her blank eyes followed him. It was an old lesson she had learnt he thought. Values changed as your circumstances did. What she had wanted to protect at the beginning hadn't mattered towards the end. In the end it all came down to surviving, to staying alive.

"How disappointing," he sighed as he kicked her lightly and watched her roll over trying to offer herself up to him again. "Pitiful is what you are now, my lovely. You debase and degrade yourself just to stay alive. What is your life worth to me?"

He squatted down beside her. "All you have left is the ability to breathe. And you'd fuck again just to retain that privilege."

The merest spark of life was in her eyes as her head nodded.

"Stupid human." Greed said as he stood up and planted his booted foot on her head. He focused and his shield formed, concentrated and thick around his leg. He pushed down with his boot and ignored the crumpling noise as he stepped away.

To always live. To never have that fear it could be taken from you. Now there was something he really wanted. One day he would find that. No matter how long it took.

To steal eternity was what he had been made for.

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Miscellany: "To greed, all nature is insufficient." Author: Seneca.

Author's Note: This one decided it needed to be done as well… one sin at a time…

silken :)


	3. Pride

**My Sins**

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor ever will, Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters within.

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**Pride – Actor**

Pride was an actor. He had been acting for most of his life. His stage was not one of the new moving picture houses that were becoming popular or even one of the old theatres with their redolent scents and cold backstage rooms. His was the grandest stage there was. Ruler and Fuhrer of the whole country.

He smiled with an open friendliness and his voice was a welcome invitation to strangers. Harmless and friendly, he wore those faces every day of his existence. He used them as efficiently as he used his sword. It was a character he created, a persona he took on. It was the face he showed to the people around him.

Through the window of his large office he could see a red-coated boy and a large suit of armour walking across the Parade Grounds. The smile that formed was very different to the one that had accepted that same boy into the Military a week ago.

"You're to leave him alone until you are told otherwise," he said in a voice that left no doubt that questions would be most unappreciated and completely ignored.

The slender soldier he addressed shrugged, unaffected by the hard tone. "I know my place in this. Just don't leave it too long before you decide you need me," the soldier said casually as he moved away from the window and headed towards the door. "It does require some time to properly train a sacrifice you know."

"Just do it properly this time, Envy," Pride commanded and Envy sighed theatrically as he stopped just short of the door.

"My sacrifices will be fine. I think you need to train yours a bit more," and purple eyes flared briefly before the soldier left the room.

Pride stared out of his window for a long time before he moved. Putting on his amiable expression he left his office. A quick side trip had him collecting a few of the melons he favoured and then he began to move through the huge complex.

Melons. He failed to see the allure of them but it was an eccentricity and humans responded well to eccentricities. It enforced his harmless image, it made him appear as human as they were and it was interesting to see the expressions people would make as he approached. Expressions that he catalogued and remembered and would then practise later when he was alone.

It was a tool, a way to grow and learn. And he used it to keep them unknowing and blind to himself and his intentions. The truth behind his truths required it, and he took all steps to ensure his secrets were protected and safe.

Pride walked among the soldiers, slipping easily into conversations with a single remark before moving on again, never stopping in one place for too long. For all his size he moved gracefully, smoothly, never missing a beat or an opportunity. His hidden eye saw it all and he followed the currents of the very air as he spread his influence in the most innocuous of ways.

It was in a corridor, empty and quiet that he suddenly dropped the melon. Before it hit the ground his sword had flashed and cut, silver steel moving faster than normal eyes could see.

"That was stupid," he told the blue clad soldier and withdrew his sword from the man's throat. "Don't test me again, Envy."

"Your reflexes are still good," the soldier smirked as he placed a hand to his pierced throat.

"And you risk everything by playing these little games where people could see."

"I made sure we were alone first." His eyes flickered purple and he stretched lithely. "Now that the brats are here, we'll be gone for awhile. There are some things we have to do."

"Very well, I will keep my eye on them."

"You'd better," Envy snapped and Pride chuckled.

"It irks that you are unable to touch them, doesn't it?"

Envy moved, shifting to attack with inhuman speed and the sword was in his chest before his kick could land at the side of that dark head. They held their positions for a long moment before they parted and the sword slipped back into its sheath as Envy repaired his uniform. Without a word he turned and left and Pride watched him go, his lips curving before he picked up his melon and continued on his way.

A dark head had him pausing by a window and he looked over to see a slender Lieutenant-Colonel with a blonde Second-Lieutenant at his side walking towards the mess. His eye watched the swing of arrayed gloves and saw the air shift around him. Whimsy was an expression he had catalogued and he brought it into play now as he remembered Envy's earlier words. Perhaps he _should_ train his sacrifices more.

It would make the moment of revelation all the more pleasurable. What expressions would Pride be able to see and catalogue? Just how deep could he make that betrayal? His smile broadened and he began to walk back to his office, thoughts and plans running through his mind. Once seated there he sent a message through channels the military couldn't trace before calling his secretary in.

"Let's make Mustang a Colonel. Assign him to East City Command. Draw up the papers and then call him in tomorrow. I want to see his face."

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Miscellany: "Pride the first peer and president of hell. " Author: Daniel Defoe.

Author's Note: I had the urge to work on this before the dragon consumes me… and this is anime Pride...

silken :)


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